The parents of Thomas Lindenau are angry and frustrated that the province has failed to make a deadly stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway safer, despite previous promises to do so.

Their son, Thomas, was killed instantly in a crash on Feb. 3 on the stretch of the highway between the West Shore Parkway and Leigh Road.

It’s an area where there are no centre medians.

The Acura that the 24-year-old Nanaimo man was driving was struck head-on by a southbound BMW.

Three weeks later Lindenau’s father, Mark Lindenau, says he feels anger and despair that his son’s death could have been prevented.

“If the road work was done. Even just the concrete barrier was there, I'd still have my son.”

Mark and his wife, Jennifer Lindenau, are pushing for the province to build a concrete median, separating the two southbound lanes from the one northbound lane.

Jennifer says she wants that change made immediately.

“I want changes... It's too late for my family. But why would anyone else have to go through this? Why hasn't this already been done?" she said.

The family’s anger is amplified by the fact that safety improvements to this stretch of highway were expected to be done by now.

Former Transportation Minister, Todd Stone, announced back in 2016 that improvements, including centre medians and an extra northbound lane, were coming and were planned for late 2018 or early 2019. 

The City of Langford has recently received documents from the current Ministry of Transportation that indicate design plans for the improvements were fully completed as long ago as May 2017. 

Langford’s Mayor, Stew Young, shares in the Lindenau’s frustrations.

He’s upset the province didn’t specifically earmark funding for safety improvements for this stretch of road in this week’s budget. 

Young notes it’s an especially dangerous area, where police have reported more than 40 crashes since 2017, including two fatal collisions in the past several weeks, Lindenau’s deadly crash and one a few weeks earlier, on January 8. 

“We want to make sure the government realizes that that’s our number one priority as a city,” says Young. “And we’ll have to be pushing that these barriers get in there. That’s what saves lives. That’s what was announced three and a half years ago.”

When contacted by CTV Friday, the minister of transportation’s office issued a statement noting, “The ministry has had discussion with the City of Langford and is currently exploring the potential for short-term engineering options to enhance safety measures along this corridor.”

For Lindenau’s family, that’s not good enough.

Jennifer says she wants some type of firm commitment to build medians, before any other family is forced to experience her family’s pain.

“You want to actually make a difference and show that this means something to your people, then give us the dates," she said.